Yours Truly

Interesting.. "Buffett said he's "salivating" at the prospect of buying some companies after two potential $20 billion acquisitions fell through earlier this year over disagreements on price. Berkshire has $40 billion in cash on hand, but prices are difficult right now, he said, and Berkshire won't get into bidding wars. Warren Buffett on CNBC's "Squawk Box" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- He's planning to look at the financials of a $6 billion company he's been offered, but he didn't name that potential acquisition. "

I would suggest baseball, football, basketball and hockey cards. They are an excellent investment for any situation that might befall us. Unopened cases and boxes from the late 1980s are particularly good. I like the ones that are bundled with a stick of gum which could be used as barter in an end of the world scenario no?

The more I read about this guy, the more he's sounding like a young WEB... I forsee him taking a much larger role within BRK in the near future.. Regarding his stock picks, supposedly in one of the articles, it highlights the fact that he spends at least 500 hours picking apart and analysing a company before deciding on investing in it

hmmm.. market timing and mentioning of beta.. i'll just continue on my way as if the market does not exist and focusing my energy on individual companies

Excellent returns.. but I wonder what his holdings are and if his returns are front-loaded as a result from loading up during the 2009 meltdown similar to Oceanstone Mutual fund that was previously brought up in another thread

the monotone sounding Bonnie Brooks was ringing through my head while I was reading this post

What are the commercial vacancy rates in the city/area? What is the demographic in the area? Does the local laws in place favour the renter or owner?

I'm getting $10-12 billion.. their share count history has been a rollercoaster going to as low as 91 mil back in 02 to 107.1 mil in 07... now it's back to 93.5 mil

It is in the filing. 9. 4,197,569 of the total reported securities as of September 28, 2012, are owned by the following pension plans of Berkshire's subsidiaries: Acme Brick Company Pension Trust (175,000), The Buffalo News Office Pension Plan (65,000), The Buffalo News Mechanical Pension Plan (16,000), The Buffalo News Drivers/Distributors Pension Plan (7,000), The Buffalo News Editorial Pension Plan (105,000), Dexter Pension Plan (90,000), Flightsafety International Inc. Retirement Income Plan (300,000), Fruit of the Loom Pension Trust (670,000), GEICO Corporation Pension Plan Trust (1,303,769), Johns Manville Corporation Master Pension Trust (1,182,800), Justin Brands, Inc. Union Pension Plan & Justin Brands, Inc. Pension & Trust (96,000), and Scott Fetzer Company Collective Investment Trust (187,000); each of Berkshire, Mr. Buffett and these pension plans disclaims beneficial ownership in such shares. Thanks for that! It looks like DVA is now a core-holding for the long term... Was looking at DVA in the $80 range but was short of cash to invest into it... it was quite the character of a CEO/founder and a strong moat BUT the governement risk factor is always there

"About 40% of the holdings of DaVita are in some of BRK's pension plans" Source?

@globalfinancepartners great update! it's definitely Ted Weschler at work... It pays to clone Ted who managed to generate 25% annual returns in the last decade when S&P generated close to nothing

@giofranchi almost all your posts are about the macro picture, are you a macro investor?

I guess a lot has changed since he wrote Dhando Investor where he uses calculations to calculate intrinsic value.

Anyone know of Guy Spier's track record? He's usually associated with Pabrai so i'm just curious if he has similar returns to his.

Just looked at his latest holdings, quite the concentration! surprised AIG isn't in there as well

My wife and I are definitely upgrading to the 5.. she's upgrading from the 4 and i'm switching from the Galaxy Note. I had initially thought that the Galaxy Note could serve as both a tablet and phone but after playing with and subsequently purchasing the new iPad, I was severely wrong. I like Android's diversity of offerings but at the end of the day, the phone just lacks refinement and polishness. I'm also not particularly fond of having the newest and greatest Android device only for it to be diminished a few days/weeks/months later by another Android device from the same maker or the various other handset manufacturers. The upgrade from Gingerbread to ICS was a huge improvement but it's still rather laggy and buggy in certain areas plus battery life is horrid!

LOL, good find... but this could be clearly due to clever editing as well.. it's obvious that those who noticed no differences wouldn't have been included in that clip... then again, its a comedy show so it's expected

Read his books. There were limits on the % of Magellan he could buy in one stock (5% I think?). Though, he could keep all of it if he did not sell. For that reason, Chrysler's price increase threatened at one moment to make it like 10% of his port. He had hundreds of positions and there are several anecdotes of him going through the very long list and the constant visiting of companies. I don't want to end with prematurely white hair like him. Ahh yes, mutual fund rules.. supposedly he was working 70-hour days and visiting 40 companies a month which burnt him out Here's a nice find - "The amazing thing is that even with assets of $9 billion -- the size of Guatemala's GNP -- Magellan continues to outpace the market. Through the fund, Lynch owns stocks of 1,400 companies, or 13% of all of America's publicly traded corporations. "

I'd like to know how concentrated his top 10 holdings were.. I couldn't find this online anywhere nor any published annual reports during his tenure at Fidelity

What I find ridiculous is that he owned more than 1,000 stocks in his portfolio and still made 29.2% annual return... there must have been tons of 100, 1000, 10,000 baggers

New purchase by FFH? http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/arbor-memorial-enters-takeover-deal-valuing-company-at-375-million-169387376.html

the key takeaway from above "much easier ways for Pershing Square to make money." i.e. take activist roles and influence management/board

Pretty much sums it up for me too. Either we have to wait for a drop/scare or some special situation occurs in the companies we are watching. It's tough sitting on your hands.

If you guys like Lynch's investment style and writing, definitely check out Francois Rochon of Giverny Capital's articles and annual reports. He has an excellent track record in the past +15 years of 14% annum returns I believe. http://www.montrealgazette.com/search/search.html?q=Fran%C3%A7ois+Rochon http://www.givernycapital.com/en/rapports

I have been doing a lot of bio reading on past successful value-oriented managers with exceptional track records and Peter Lynch is definitely is at the top of my list... I just completed reading up about Julien Robertson of formerly, Tiger Management however the books on him don't really divest into his process and methods